Lofty Occurrence
by AmyD and Suisan
Summary: PreNumb3rs.  Take a trip back in time to when Colby Granger was your typical, adventurous 9yoa boy . . .


**Lofty Occurrence**

By Suisan (with assistance from AmyD)

Pre Numb3rs story - Colby Granger Centered.

**Synopsis**: Take a trip back in time to when Colby Granger was nine years old and a typical, adventurous, boy…

**A/N**: This story started off as a throwaway from a single line that appeared in the AmyD & Suisan story of "_Arsenic and New Kevlar_." Go back in time to Cascade, Idaho (when the population was less than 600 people) just after Colby James Granger turned nine and just after his father, Sergeant Gareth "Gigi" Granger became Police Chief.

Catherine "Cat" Granger looked out her kitchen window, she knew the boys were playing around the barn in the free time she allowed them before their afternoon home school lessons, and screamed as she saw her youngest fall from the loft.

"COLBY!" She hit the back door running, just as she heard her husband's patrol unit pull into the gravel-paved driveway. "GARETH!!!"

Chief Gareth Granger came around the side of the house, and sprinted to catch up to her. "Cat? Cat! What's..."

She didn't answer, just kept running, ignoring the twinges and needles racing up and down her spine as she ran. Husband and wife entered the barn together to find their youngest son in a pile on the floor and their eldest staring down at him from the loft.

Catherine fell to her knees beside Colby, who was already trying to sit up, but she didn't like his pale look or the way he was gasping for air. "CeeJay? Talk to me, baby." She coaxed him, trying to ignore, and failing, her husband as he bellowed at their eldest son from where he stood directly over Colby and herself.

"Clyde Larson Granger! You get down here right now!"

"I didn't do nuthin!"

"NOW, boy! Do NOT make me come up there."

"Yes, sir." To Cat's ears, the fifteen year old sounded huffy. Best to let Gigi handle that end of the situation.

Before Clyde Larson reached the ladder leading up to or down from the barn's loft, Colby James coughed, winced in pain, and looked up at her with his hazel eyes. "Mama?" he wheezed.

"Oh, thank goodness!" She helped him to sit up, holding him gently by the shoulders. "Are you hurting anywhere, CeeJay?"

He nodded. "Hurts to breathe."

Gareth knelt down next to Colby and, bracing his youngest son's back, helped the child sit up a little straighter. "You just keep trying, son. It's going to hurt like crazy but you have to keep trying." Cat met Gareth's own hazel orbs over the sandy blond hair of their child. "Cat, if he can't catch his breath, or even if he can, we should get him to the clinic."

She felt her son flinch under her hands. "I don't wanna go to the clinic!" Colby's voice was stronger, but the wheezing hadn't gotten any better and he was holding his ribs as if they were hurting him.

Just then, Lars' feet hit the floor behind her as he used the ropes on the pulley system for hauling hay bales into the loft to come down from his perch. From the look in Gareth's eyes, she could tell he had probably guessed what had happened so she concentrated on getting Colby calmed down.

"CeeJay, if you're hurt, you need to see Doctor Nowicki. What if you broke something?"

"But I didn't! See?" He stood up, or tried to, and Cat had to reach out to steady him.

"Sit back down for a minute, Colby." She couldn't exactly ignore the drama unfolding behind her, but Cat had to concentrate on the injured child, leaving Gareth to deal with Lars and she watched as Gigi pulled Clyde Larson out of the barn and down by the willow-shaded pond.

----

"How damn irresponsible can you be, Clyde Larson?" Gareth was growling as he pulled his eldest down the trail. "You KNOW Colby looks up to you and will attempt to do everything you do! How in the HELL do you excuse your behavior?"

"I was trying to get him to leave me alone, how was I supposed to know Squirt was such a klutz?"

Gareth wasn't sure what possessed him, but at Lars' casual and rather flippant answer, he practically tossed the boy toward the largest willow tree on the property and growled at him, "You know what to do."

"Aaww, Dad-- Come on, I'm fifteen! Ain't I a little old for the switch?"

"Aren't you a little old to be enticing your younger brothers into doing dangerous stunts?" He countered, not liking the defiant look on his eldest boy's face.

"I didn't make Colby do nuthin! I was just trying to get away from him and he just had to follow me up there." Lars actually stood his ground and folded his arms over his rapidly broadening chest.

"Lars, you have five seconds to find the proper switch." Gareth said as calmly as possible, even as he tuned his tone to the decidedly glacial side.

The boy didn't move. "You can't make me."

"Wrong answer." Gareth started to unsnap the keepers that held his duty belt in place. "You want to be treated like a man, Lars?" The duty belt, with its gun, two sets of handcuffs, ASP baton, pager and radio hit the ground and he could see Lars' Adam's apple bob as the boy swallowed hard. He started to roll up the sleeves of his tan uniform shirt. "Or would you rather face your punishment like a young, stupid teenager?"

Gareth saw a glimmer of fear in his oldest boy's eyes and he really couldn't blame the kid. He'd never laid a hand on any of his kids in anger, yet he knew he was dangerously close to doing so now. "You do realize your little brother could have broken bones, right? That he could have a serious spinal injury from a fall of that magnitude?"

"He landed in the hay! He sat up!"

"I guess it never occurred to you that he never would've fallen into the hay if he hadn't been trying to impress you when all you wanted was to be left alone?"

"See? This isn't my fault!" Lars complained.

Verbal judo, with his own son, wasn't something Gareth had expected to have to do when he came home for lunch today. He lowered the volume and turned the chill down further on the tone of his voice. "Did you not see the hay fork that wasn't more than a foot behind where Colby landed?"'

The boy blinked, then turned gray as all the blood rushed from his face. "Hay fork?"

"Colby James loves you and would do anything for you, Lars. Including leaving you alone if you asked him. Did you ask?" Lars didn't answer, just lowered his gaze to the ground. "DID YOU ASK?" Gareth repeated the question, his tone commanding a response.

"Uh…. well … ummm." He didn't stop staring at the ground.

"Or did you just tell him to buzz off?"

"He wouldn't leave!" The young man whined.

"You didn't ask him to, did you?" Gareth asked, his tone extremely calm and conveying his disappointment and, once again, Lars refused to look up at him. "I'll ask you one more time; do you want for me to treat you like a man who's hurt my youngest child, or do you want me to treat you like my eldest son and allow you to get the switching you deserve?"

It was a battle of wills and the former US Army Ranger, who served three tours in 'Nam before coming home to finish his college education and become a cop, was determined not to lose it. Gray-green hazel eyes locked with his and Gareth willed the boy to wise up and was mildly surprised when the boy turned away abruptly and stomped off to pull a branch off the willow tree. He mentally let out a sigh of relief. He had not looked forward to what would've happened if Lars, already as tall as his father at 15 and nearly as muscled up, had decided this was the afternoon to 'call the old man out.'

The surly teen came back with a good-sized willow branch and handed it to Gareth, but still refused to look him in the eye. Gareth took the branch, stripped it of the leaves and even swished it back and forth a few times, fast enough to make it whistle through the air. Each time the branch made that sickening, shrill noise, Gareth saw Lars' shoulders tense up and he decided on a different tactic.

"Get up to the house and confine yourself to your bedroom, Lars." The boy finally looked up at him, something beyond fear and surprise on his face. "Go on, git! And do not turn your radio on when you get up there."

Clyde Larson slunk off toward the house, his shoulders slumped and his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. Gareth watched as his other two boys; Cliffton Forrest - 13, and Cody William - 11, backed away from the screen door of the kitchen and heard as they escaped out the front door of the house, the heavy oak door slamming behind them. He looked back at the barn to see his wife and Colby James standing next to each other and couldn't help but notice how the young boy was holding onto his chest.

"Crap." Gareth scooped up his keepers and duty belt from the ground and walked up to the barn and looked down at his youngest son. "Ribs hurt?" Colby just nodded in silence. "Cat … take him to the clinic. I still need to have a discussion with Lars and I need to take the block and tackle down from the loft beam or Cliff and Cody will try to swing from it themselves."

Colby started to whimper again, "I don't wanna go--"

"Colby James - you're going." Gareth was aware his tone was a little harsh, so he pulled back a bit and knelt down in front of the child. "If your ribs are broken and we don't get them fixed up right, your dream of wrestling at the High School like Lars has started doing will be gone. Do you want that, CeeJay?"

The boy looked back down at the ground as he whispered his answer. "No, sir."

"Good man." Gareth stood back up and turned his attention to his wife, who still looked worried and more than a little pale. "Cat, take the Suburban, the ride's smoother than the pickup and won't hurt the boy as much."

"I'd planned on it." She agreed.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Colby?"

"Don't yell at Lars. It's all my fault. I wasn't supposed to be followin' him around."

"Sez' who, CeeJay?" Gareth knew the answer, but wanted to hear what Colby would say.

"Um…." It was clear the boy was trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't get his older brother in trouble, but finally the slender shoulders dropped and the response was as Gareth suspected it would be. "Lars."

Catherine pulled his chin up to force him look at her. "CeeJay, did Lars tell you or ask you not to follow him around this afternoon?"

"Well … he told me to buzz off." Colby reached up and tugged on Gareth's sleeve, causing his father to lean down to listen to him. "I just wanted to see how he played on the ropes."

He heard Cat sigh before she patted their son gently on the shoulder. "All right, you head toward the car while I go get my things. Go on, CeeJay." She shoo'd him off and the two parents waited until they were sure he was out of earshot before she turned to question Gareth. "Does that match up with what Lars said, Gigi?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Confined to his room?"

Gareth nodded. "For now. What happens next depends on what the Doc finds."

Catherine acquiesced with that decision, then left Gareth standing by the barn as she went up to the house to grab her pocketbook and keys. _'Probably calling ahead to warn Doctor Nowicki that she's bringing Colby in.'_ He walked into the barn, no longer able to watch his youngest son walking like an old man, slowly and painfully, to his mother's car, and after tossing his duty gear onto a nearby bench, Gareth looked up at the rail hanging over the loft and decided how best to attack that particular temptation and remove it from the barn.

----

Colby was sitting on the tall bed in the exam room, he'd needed her help to get up on the bed, while Catherine waited for Doctor Nowicki to pop into the room. The doc came into the room, one hand holding a chart the other one slipping reading glasses onto the bridge of his nose. "Busy afternoon--" Nowicki looked up from the chart at Cat. "He fell out of a hayloft?"

Cat crossed her arms over her stomach, trying to conceal how upset she was - still - over the incident. "More like he jumped out of the darn thing."

"I did not!" Colby protested from where he sat.

Doctor Nowicki pulled a stool up to the bed, sat down and looked up at his young patient. "Why don't you tell me what really happened, Colby?"

"Lars told me to buzz off but I didn't want to 'cause I wanted to know what he's got up in the hay loft. But he told me that if I wanted to be a Granger I had to be able to swing on the ropes and I tried but..."

Catherine was trying not to laugh at the same time she was trying not to scream in anger at the child that wasn't present. Then she had to fight back the urge to slap Nowicki upside the head.

"I'm guessing the ropes didn't work for you like they did for Lars, hmm?"

Colby shook his head and then launched into more details about the afternoon. "Then I heard Dad yell at Lars and Mom was talking to me while she looked at Lars like she wasn't happy and I had trouble breathing and my back really hurt and I couldn't breathe without my ribs really hurting and… and…" Cat was grateful that her son finally ran out of words, but was concerned about how breathless the stream of events had left him.

"There's a trick to playing on the ropes, Colby. I'll have to show you one day, but not in front of your mother. Can't show the women-folk how it's done or they'll want to do it to." Nowicki looked over at Cat and winked at her, silently asking her to play along with him, even as she rolled her eyes at the overt display of male-bonding. "Let's get this shirt off you so I can see what you've done to yourself, young Granger."

After the shirt was gently pulled off her son, Nowicki turned him around so she could see his back and she had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out loud. The fall had happened about 40-45 minutes ago but already Colby's back was a one massive bruise. Nowicki reached into a cabinet and pulled out a plain blue hospital like gown, sized for a child and helped Colby pull it on. "Colby, you get to have a very special set of photos taken today." He helped the boy down from the table, "Catherine, let's walk down to x-ray. I'm pretty sure nothing's broken, but I want to be sure."

This would be Colby's first exposure to the x-ray machine at Nowicki's practice, but not hers. Cody William had broken a leg last year when he tried to jump his bike off a rickety ramp he'd slapped together; Cliffton Forrest had broken an arm three years ago when he fell out of a huge pine tree. Even Clyde Larson had been in the room more than once, especially since he started wrestling with the junior team at the high school. Mostly as a precautionary measure when he suffered from a severe sprain or strain, so Cat was all too aware of the route from the exam rooms to the x-ray room. She was aware that Nowicki and Colby James were taking about the upcoming x-ray when her son asked if he could have a copy to show his brothers and his friends.

"You've seen your brother's x-rays from when Cliff broke his arm or Cody's leg?" Nowicki was asking Colby as they slowly walked down the hall.

"Yeah, those were neat!"

"Well, yours is going to be even better. More stuff to see."

"Really?"

"Yeap." The doctor and Colby entered the x-ray room while Cat stopped just inside the doorway. "Charlene? Got a brave one for you."

The radiologist came out from the control room, a smile on her face as she took in the age of her patient. "Just what I've been waiting all day for, Doctor." She looked down at Colby, "Are you the brave one or," and she looked over at Cat at this point, "is it you?"

"Me!" Colby answered, a little excited about this special photo. "Doctor Icky said I could even have a copy! Is that true?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Charlene slid a stepstool out from under the hard as she patted the hard surface. "Can you hop up here for me or do you need help?"

In spite of his enthusiasm Colby needed the help of both Charlene and Nowicki to get up on the table and get positioned correctly. "Just the standard chest and spine series, Charlene. Colby's mother will be in the hall when you're done." Nowicki left the bedside of his patient and Catherine followed him out into the hall as he closed the lead-lined door behind them. "Cat, Charlene will take good care of him. I'm a little concerned that he didn't vocalize about the pain he had to feel when we positioned him. Does he often suppress pain response?"

Cat nodded. "Yes, especially in front of me. He's always trying to prove he can handle anything and, frankly, Gigi and I are at a loss to explain where Colby picked up that attitude."

"If I talk to him, think he'll drop the act and tell you when he's in pain?"

"Maybe … in case you haven't noticed, Grangers are stubborn creatures."

Nowicki let out a chortle. "Oh, I've noticed, trust me, I've noticed. I need to go call in a script for another patient, I'll be back with you and Colby as soon as Charlene hands me the photos."

Catherine touched the slightly younger man on the sleeve of his lab coat. "Are you really going to let him have a copy of the x-rays, Doc?"

"Sure. You home school your kids, right?" She nodded in agreement. "Think of the x-ray as a source material for your next biology lesson."

She shook her head at the doctor's generosity as he loped back down the hall to where she knew his office was located. A few minutes later, Charlene appeared with Colby who looked a little gray around the gills. "Mrs. Granger, you have a very brave son here."

"Thank you, Charlene."

"It'll be about ten to fifteen minutes for me to develop the film and then Doc Nowicki will get back with you both in the exam room." Charlene leaned down and gave Colby a very light hug. "You take care now, Colby."

"I will. Bye Miss Charlie."

Cat walked behind Colby as they made their way back to the exam room, her son still not moving at his usual pace, in fact, he was moving slower than he had been walking to the x-ray department. "You okay, CeeJay?"

"Mom … My back really hurts."

She hid her surprise as they entered the exam room and he refused to climb back onto the bed, opting, instead, to sit next to her and lean into her while he wrapped his arms around her waist. Which is how Nowicki found them when he came back into the room, the large cardboard sleeve for x-ray films gripped in one hand.

"Good news, nothing is broken, just like I figured. Bad news is, Mrs. Ryder just brought young Nikki in and I need to go take care of her before I finish up with Colby here." Nowicki took a couple of seconds to pop the film up onto the light boxes attached to the wall. "I'll be right back."

Cat knew the Ryder child's reputation; "I wonder what she stuffed up her nose this time?" But wasn't aware she'd speculated out loud until Colby started to giggle.

"Eeew, that's gross, Mom."

"Yeah, it is, but it's true."

The silence stretched out between mother and son, the only sound in the room being that of the air exchanger turning on and off. "Mom? Am I going to be in trouble?"

"What makes you think that, CeeJay?"

"Because Lars is and we was both playing on the ropes in the barn."

She slipped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a very light hug; all too conscious of the bruising she'd seen earlier. "No, sweetheart, you're not going to be in any trouble this time."

He looked up at her, his green-gray eyes shining bright with mischief. "Okay, does that mean we can stop by the ice cream store on the way home?"

"We'll see." She placed a finger under his chin and lifted it until he realized she was being serious. "You have to realize you can't follow Lars everywhere he goes, Colby."

"I know that, Mom. But he didn't ask. If he'd asked me to leave him alone, I would've came back inside and read my history assignment."

Cat nodded. "Baby, you need to promise me that you will never, ever go up into the hayloft unless your father or I are there with you. And that you'll use the ladder like a sensible child instead the ropes like a wild monkey."

"I promise, Mom." He sealed his promise to her in his usual way, a hug. She couldn't, and wouldn't ever, tell him that her heart had nearly stopped when she saw him fall from the hayloft.

"Thank you, Colby. You don't want to turn your mother into an old woman before her time, do you?" She teased him.

"You're already old, Mom!"

She tweaked his nose. "And I'm getting older every day thanks to you and your brothers, young man!"

Doctor Nowicki came back into the room to find Catherine and Colby laughing and carrying on. "I see someone is feeling better. Why don't you pick which one of the photos you want to take home, Colby?" He sat back down on the stool and handed the tee shirt he'd removed from Colby earlier back to Cat. "I already told you, but it bears repeating, I didn't find any broken bones or even any bone bruising, but Colby is going to be very stiff and very sore for a couple of days, maybe even a week. I'm going to prescribe some mild, yet stronger than over-the-counter, pain meds and a muscle relaxer for him."

Cat understood. It hadn't been all that long ago that she'd hurt her back, worse than her son had, and all that got her through the bad days were her pain killers and muscle relaxants. "Any chance on getting a couple of 'nerve pills' for myself, Doc?" She teased the man, knowing full well his partner, Doctor Lynde, kept him fully apprised of her situation.

"I don't think so, Cat … unless you think the Chief will need one?"

"Too late. He's already madder than a wet hen."

"Guess he was home when this happened?"

"Yes. He's still home, probably removing the temptation from the barn even as we sit here talking." Before Nowicki could respond, Colby pointed out the x-ray he wanted.

"This one, Doctor Icky." Cat looked up to see her son pointing at the chest x-ray that showed not only all his ribs, but his spine as well.

"Certainly, Colby." The doctor slipped the film into a protective sleeve even as Cat helped Colby slip his tee shirt back on. "I'm guessing Lars is still in one piece?" Nowicki asked as he handed the sleeve to Colby.

"So far. I'm hoping he's still that way when I get hone with Sprout here."

"Mooooooom!" Colby protested.

"Oops! Sorry, Colby." She looked back up at Nowicki, "I forget, I'm not supposed to use that name in public anymore."

"So I see." The doctor was clearly trying not to laugh at her son's antics. "Do you want me to call the scripts into Bart's or do you want to drop by in person and maybe pick up some ice cream while you wait for him to fill the scripts?"

"Mom? Ice cream? Please?"

Cat swallowed a laugh. "I guess that answers that. Thanks, Doc." She accepted the paper with the prescriptions written on it.

"Not a problem. Now, Colby?"

"Yes, sir?"

"The medications your mother is going to pick up for you are meant to help you heal and feel better. So if you're in pain, you tell her and she'll give you one of the meds to help get rid of the pain. Then, at bedtime, you're going to need to take both of the meds or you won't be able to move when you wake up. All right?"

"Yes, sir, I understand."

"No being brave and acting like you're not hurting if you are, right?"

"No, sir. I'll tell Mom when I'm not feeling well, I promise."

"Good man. Now I'll want to see you again in two weeks, can you remember that for me?" Colby nodded solemnly. "Thank you, Colby. I need to speak to your Mom now, you want to wait for her up front?"

They watched as Colby walked up the hall to the lobby, a little faster than he'd walked coming back from x-ray. "He'll bounce back pretty quick, Cat. But if he has any increased pain or trouble breathing, you get him back in here quick. All right?"

"I don't mind telling you, Horacio, I think Colby and Lars managed to take ten years off my life this afternoon. I looked out and saw him fall…" She faltered, the horror of that moment coming back into her mind full-force.

"Cat, I did the same damn thing to my mother when I was about his age. I survived, so did my mother. You will too and I suspect Colby learned a valuable lesson about ladders and why we use them instead of swinging on ropes." She nodded in agreement with the doctor. "Now, the meds are probably going to knock him out, especially the night-time combo, so don't be surprised if he's a little difficult to wake up for a week or so."

"That's one of the advantages of home schooling, Horacio. If he needs to sleep in, he can without missing a day of class." She stuffed the script into her pocket and pulled out her keys. "Thank you - again - and we'll see you again in two weeks."

Before he could reply, Mrs. Ryder in the other exam room could be heard, clearly. "NIKKI! What are you chewing on?!!"

Cat suppressed a giggle, even as Horacio Nowicki rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I think Nikki just managed to get the peanuts unstuck." He waved goodbye as he entered the room where Mrs. Ryder was still trying to figure out what her daughter was chewing on. "What's the fuss about in here?"

Walking out into the lobby, Cat found Colby waiting for her, patiently, by the door. "Can we go now, Mom?"

"Yes, dear. Do you want to walk to Bart's or ride?"

"Walk."

They left the medical clinic and walked the block and a half to Bart's Pharmacy and Ice Cream Parlor. After she'd handed the prescription note to Bart himself, she found Colby by the ice cream counter. "Remember, Sport, you have to pick something everyone will like, not just you."

Colby frowned at that reminder. "But Mom … Lars and Cody don't like pistachio." He'd had his first taste of the nut-based, green colored ice cream as a small baby and never lost his love for it, his brothers, however, hated even the smell of it.

"So find something they'll like or we don't get any."

"Yes, ma'am." Cat got the attention of Bart's wife, Sally Mae, and mouthed that whatever Colby picked out was to be packed into a full quart container before wandering over to the aisle where she knew the pharmacist carried the Epsom salts. '_Pain meds and muscle relaxants are all well and good, but nothing beats a long soak in a salt bath sometimes._'

Colby found her as she was paying for his medications, the bath salts and the ice cream he was holding in an insulated paper sack. "What flavor did you decide on, CeeJay?"

"Rocky Road and Missus Bart put a container of fudge sauce in the bag too."

Cat smiled inwardly. Rocky Road with a not-too-healthy dollop of fudge sauce was Lars' favorite ice cream treat; trust Colby to use that as a peace offering to get back on his brother's good side. "Excellent choice, CeeJay. Now, let's get home before it melts, shall we?"

Mother and son walked back to the clinic parking lot hand in hand. With her holding the ice cream, the packaging was awkward and hurt Colby's ribs, while he carried the bag with his medications and the Epsom salts. Everything was slowly returning to normal in her world. Catherine Granger just wondered what would happen next to test her strength.

----

Gareth used a hay hook to pull the tackle ropes in from where they hung down from the cantilevered post. Working at the knots, he was able to yank the ropes off the pulleys and let them fall to the floor. His eyes automatically going to where Colby had landed and had come so close to impaling his 9 year old body on the hay fork someone, probably Cliff, had left laying about.

Coming home for lunch was usually a joyful part of his shift; today he'd no sooner exited his patrol car than Cat's horrified scream had shattered the mountain air. He'd run around the house in time to see her moving like the sprinter she'd been in college and making a bee-line toward the barn; what ever she'd seen had pumped so much adrenaline into her body that her arthritis was temporarily abated.

'_How could Lars been so inconsiderate of CeeJay, of his other brothers and even his mother's teachings?_' Gareth's anger seethed just under the surface and he used the energy to launch his body onto the post and then moved out to unhook the pulleys from the lumber. He stood up from the crouching position and turned to walk back to the loft ... and it dawned on him what he was doing.

**He** was the reason his boys were so damn adventurous. How many times had all four watched him rig the pulleys? How many times had he walked out on to the post and just attach the tools and ropes without using the 30 ft extension ladder he and Cat had bought for just such a chore? Gareth dropped the pulleys to the barn floor 18 feet below, then, with one hand on the roof of the barn for balance, he carefully walked the beam back to the loft.

His anger at Lars was disappearing rapidly and he understood what his eldest had been thinking. After all, his Uncle had been a younger, and pesky, brother at one time too. Garry Granger had been Gareth's baby brother, still was, his death in Vietnam hadn't changed that.

He climbed down the ladder from the loft, gathered up the ropes and pulleys and put them away, then put the hayfork and other tools he found littering the hay pile where it was supposed to be. Looking up at the house from the wide-open barn doors, Gareth could see Lars standing at the window of his room.

Shaking his head as he pulled the doors shut, he realized he was finally calm enough to talk - just talk - with his eldest boy. Trudging up the small hill to the house, he entered through the kitchen door, washed his hands up in the sink, and then picked up the phone to call Bonnie at the station.

"Bonnie, it's me. Look, something came up at the house and I'm going to be late getting back from lunch. Get Bill to cover for me if something comes up the others can't handle. Thanks."

He hung up, knowing full well the story would be all over town once he got back to the station. Marybel, Dr. Nowicki's receptionist, was one of the town's gossips and she'd be sure to spread the word that the Chief's youngest had come in with spectacular injuries.

Shrugging out of his tan polyester duty shirt, Gareth started up the stairs in the front of the house, dreading the talk about to happen. But first, he had to change uniform. This one was soaked with fear inspired sweat and bird droppings coated the backside of his dark green trousers from where he'd sat on the loft beam.

Gareth changed, and then stopped by Cody's room, not surprised to find that boy wasn't there. Taking a few more steps down the hall, he opened the door to Cliff's room and found the two boys sitting on the bed, their noses stuck in their schoolbooks. Both looked up at him, their eyes wide, with Cody's holding just a trace of redness that told Gigi the younger boy had been scared pretty bad when Colby fell.

"Cliff, why do you and Cody head down to the beaver dam and see if you can catch something for your biology lessons tomorrow?"

"Yes, Dad. Come on, Code, let's go get us some frogs."

"Dad?" Cody spoke up as he got off the bed. "You gonna yell at Lars?"

Gareth shook his head. "I'm not planning on it, Cody."

"You gonna switch his backside?"

"No. Well, maybe not."

"So you made him pick the switch, just in case?"

Gareth reached out and tousled Cody's blond hair. "Code, you're just too damn quick with that brain of yours. Yes, I made Lars pick the switch, just in case. Now you and Cliff go frog'in. I want to talk to your brother in private."

"Yes, sir." Cody scampered out of the room, literally chasing Cliffton down the stairs and out the front door.

Taking the final steps down the hall, Gareth knocked on the frame of the door, and then walked into Lars' room without an invite. "Lars."

Lars did not turn around. "Yeah, Dad?"

"We need to talk." He pulled the chair out from the desk and sat down. "Turn around and look at me, son."

Lars did but slowly. He stayed where he was, by the window, his arms crossed, a scowl on his face.

"You know what you did wrong in handling Colby, right?"

Lars looked down at the floor. "I didn't tell him to stop following me." he mumbled.

"Sorry, didn't quite hear that. Look at me when you're speaking to me, Lars. I taught you better than that."

"I didn't tell him to stop following me." Lars said, looking at a point somewhere over his father's shoulder.

"You didn't tell him ... Lars, what have I and your mother told you about telling and asking?"

"I didn't _ask_ him to stop following me." Lars said.

"And once you realized what he was trying to do, trying to imitate you, why didn't you stop him and tell him it was dangerous and he was really too small to try it?"

The scowl deepened on Lars face. "It's not like he was going to listen. I didn't think he could do it anyway."

"Did you even TRY to talk him out of it?" Gareth felt like he was talking to an animated brick wall.

"No." Lars shrugged. "I figured if he tried and failed, he'd leave me alone. It's not like I wanted him to get hurt."

"So you're telling me you didn't want Colby to get hurt, but that you also didn't try to talk him out of attempting the rope swing. That about right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Lars, sit down on the bed, please."

He did. At the far end, well out of his father's reach.

Gareth stayed where he was, his hands braced on his knees, trying to convey to his own son that he wasn't going to harm him. Just like he would a perp. "Lars, I want you to put yourself in my position. You're a father and your eldest just did something that may have resulted in your youngest being seriously hurt. Got that in your head?" After a couple of moments, Lars nodded. "Right. Now your eldest is telling you what you yourself have just told me. And he's not at all apologetic that he nearly got his youngest brother killed because he was too stubborn to talk to his little brother." Gareth leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands into a non-threatening position. "How do you punish that child?"

"But I am sorry. I didn't want Colby to fall off. Jeez, I was so surprised when he appeared, I almost fell off myself." Lars said.

"But you still made no attempt to stop CeeJay from grabbing the ropes, did you?"

Lars thought for a long moment, then shook his head. "No, sir. But I didn't think he would! Honest!!!"

"You and your brothers have been to enough SCA events that there is one word you all respond to without thinking, you know what that word is?"

"Hold."

"So why didn't you call out that word when you saw CeeJay grab for the ropes?" Gareth couldn't keep the disappointment from his voice.

"I don't know."

"Lars, your mother and I made special arrangements for you to try out and join the high school wrestling and the swim teams. I think you're about to be temporarily banned from those activities." He saw Lars take a deep breath in to protest, but Gareth held up a hand the boy wisely clamped his mouth shut. "Be thankful I don't curtail your SCA activities as well."

"Yes, sir." Lars mumbled.

"Lars, I love you as much as I love your brothers, it hurts me more than you can know to have to punish you. But you need to think about what you did and why. Which is why you're going to take over Colby's chores around the house and his field chores until he's able to do them again."

Lars looked like he was in physical pain upon hearing that. The sound of Catherine's Suburban drifted up from the driveway, then the sound of a door slamming open vibrated through the house.

"I'VE GOT ICE CREAM FOR EVERYONE!"

Gareth smiled as Colby James' voice rang through the house. Clearly the boy wasn't badly injured or he wouldn't be able to yell like that. "We'll be right down!" He called out, knowing his voice would carry down the hall and down stairs. "CeeJay ... use that voice of yours to get Cliff and Code to come up from the beaver dam."

"Frogs! Cool!" The front door opened and slammed shut again.

"Guess you got lucky, Lars." Gareth turned his attention back to his eldest.

Lars just looked at his father.

"From the sound of things, Colby won't be out of action long and that means you won't have to do his chores too long." Gareth stood up, pushed the ladder-back chair back under the desk and beckoned for his boy to stand up next to him. Lars obeyed Gareth and he reached out and pulled the boy into a bear hug. "You should know, the ropes were rotten, it easily could've been you that fell, Lars. I removed the damn things from the loft beam. I don't want my boys getting hurt."

"If it had been, at least, you wouldn't be lecturing me."

Gareth let out a bark of laughter. "Don't count on it, boy. Let's go see what your brother picked out, shall we?"

"He probably picked pistachio." Lars groused.

"I doubt that, since your mother knows you and Cody don't like 'green nut ice cream' I seriously doubt she allowed him to get that for everyone."

Lars did not look convinced. Downstairs, the sound of a door opening, then slamming shut again, plus the sound of boys laughing and Catherine telling them - loudly - to put the frogs in the small pond out back and to wash up could be heard. "Why not come down with me, see what CeeJay got and then, if you don't want any, you can come back up here to think?"

Lars looked like he was going to say something but, for once, kept his mouth shut and shrugged. "Okay."

Gareth led the way, ignoring the waves of teen frustration rolling off Lars, and as they entered the kitchen, he had to move aside quickly as Colby made a beeline for his oldest brother.

"Lars! Come see ... I picked out your favorite!" The youngster wouldn't be refused and had grabbed Lars' hand and dragged the boy to the table where Cat was dishing up the ice cream.

"See?" Colby was pointing at the carton, "Rocky Road ... and we got a bottle of fudge sauce too!"

A glimmer of a smile edged across Lars face. "CeeJay?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever do what you see me doing again, okay? I'm bigger than you."

Colby toed his sneaker at the grout between two tiles on the floor. "Not ever? Even when I'm bigger?"

"Well, maybe then but not now."

Gareth and Cat exchanged glances over the heads of their children. Her expression told him Colby would be all right, and she was happy to see Lars wasn't nursing a bruised backside.

"Good! I can't wait to learn how to wrestle like you do, Lars!" The older boy made a face but hid it quickly.

"Colby," Gareth got his youngest child's attention. "Lars isn't going to be wrestling at school for a while."

"Aw...why not?"

Cat looked up from the errand of dishing up the ice cream with a shocked expression on her face. Gareth ignored it while he answered Colby's question and the unspoken ones on the faces of Cliffton and Cody. "That is the arrangement I made with Lars for him not doing what he should have done to stop you from getting up into the loft in the first place and then not stopping you from trying to swing down on the ropes."

"But Dad..." Colby's face crumpled. "It's not his fault."

"No buts. It's done." The pager on his duty belt rang out from where he'd tossed it on the back porch. "Damn. Cat ... I'll probably work over a little while to cover my extended lunch break. Boys, you behave and stay out of the barn until I get home." Nods all around.

"Lars, remember the other part of our arrangement." Gareth reminded his son as he opened the screen door, picked up his duty belt, read the message on the pager, then sprinted to his car. Jeanie had a 'situation' at the Wilson residence and that could only mean one thing. Stan was drunk and beating on his wife again.

----

Cat watched as Gareth sprinted to his unit, then the light bar lit up and he spun gravel everywhere as he accelerated out of the drive just as the phone rang. She picked it up, "Hello? Yes, Bonnie, he's on his way ... the Wilsons? Damn. All right. Yeah, bye."

She turned to see Lars staring at her and the others watching her as they let their ice cream melt. "Mom," Lars started, "You cussed."

"Did I?"

"Uh, huh." Colby said.

Cliffton nodded. "Yeah, you said DAMN."

"Oops! Never you mind that and you boys know not to repeat that, right?" She waited until all four nodded in agreement. "Lars, what other arrangement did you and your father make?"

Lars made another face and said "Dad says I have to do Squirt's chores around the house and in the field until he's better."

"That's not fair!" Colby cried out from where he sat next to Lars.

"Nah, Squirt. Dad was right. It was a dumb thing I did."

"But you didn't do it! I did!"

"Yeah but I didn't stop you and I should have."

Cat watched as Lars handled his little brother, pride swelling in her heart as she realized her eldest was actually growing up and taking responsibility for his actions. Even if his father had had to goad him into it.

"Course, this doesn't mean that I'm not going to hang you out a window next time you bug me."

Cat had to bite her lips to keep from laughing out loud as Colby squealed in protest, or glee. "That would be fun!"

"No, it wouldn't!" Cat said.

"Can we watch?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, it would be, Mom." Cliff volunteered.

"Cliffton Forrest Granger..." Cat started to say, only to be interrupted by Colby piping up.

"It's not like I haven't hung out the windows before, Mom."

Cat groaned and rubbed her face with her hands. "I don't really want to know, do I?" She eyed Lars, knowing instinctively that her eldest was at the root of that bit of brotherly 'fun' and frivolity.

"No ... you probably don't. I'm going to go rake out the barn, then put the saltlick out for the deer." Lars excused himself from the table, leaving his brothers to talk their way out of the hole they'd just dug. If they could. Before the boys could say anything, Cat held up a hand.

"No! I don't want to hear it - I don't want to know! Finish your treat and then go do your chores." Cat put the left over ice cream in the freezer and walked out to the barn, where she found Lars standing outside the side door, his hand on the handle, but not making a move to pull the door open. "Lars?" He turned to face her and she spotted the telltale sign of tears in his eyes. Tears he was trying to hold back, and failing.

"Mom ... he could've died and it would have been my fault." Cat looked at her eldest child, wondering what was going through his head. "If he'd landed on the floor and not the hay, or if he'd landed on the fork I hadn't seen..."

"Oh, sweetheart..." Cat grasped Lars by the arms and said, "If you want to drive yourself nuts, you can do the 'if this had happened or if this had happened' game but no good comes of it."

"But..."

"Yes, Colby could have been killed but he wasn't." She pulled him in close to hug him, then pushed him back out to arms length. "Do you remember what your grandmother would say, about guardian angels?" Lars shook his head. "He looked away for a moment but then he looked back."

Lars nodded. "Guess the Granger Guardian Angels work overtime, huh?"

Cat laughed. "I don't think they have any hair left or if they do it's gray."

"Mom ... it just occurred to me. Dad said to stay out of the barn, but I need to do my chores before I start on Squirt's."

"Lars, just do the rest and later, when Dad gets home, you can do the barn chores. Now, I need to go check on CeeJay and give him one of his pain killers."

Lars winced. "Is Squirt really okay?"

"He will be. But he's going to be bruised for a while. It takes a lot more than a 18 foot fall into a slim pile of hay to harm one of my kids."

Lars smiled. "Okay." He turned and headed for the shed where they kept the salt licks stored. The Granger land was posted No Hunting and, because of that, the deer population was growing rapidly and the family had taken on the added responsibility of feeding and caring for the herds. At least until this fall, when Cat was pretty sure Gigi and the boys would hunt to thin out the herd and then Gareth would open the land to invitation only hunts.

Cat returned to the house to find Colby still sitting at the table, playing with his ice cream, which was mostly melted. "CeeJay, you feeling okay?"

"My back hurts."

"Guess it's time for one of the pills Doc Icky gave you?"

Colby nodded.

"Mom?"

Cat reached for the pill bottle on top of the fridge as she answered, "Yes, CeeJay?"

"Is Lars mad at me?"

She poured a glass of milk then handed it and the pill to her son as she sat down beside him. "No, baby. Lars' isn't mad at you. If anything, he's mad at himself and worried about you."

Colby took the pill and drank the milk. "He shouldn't be."

Cat sighed. "Actually, he may not have much choice. It's part of the unwritten code for Older Brothers that they have to worry about younger brothers ... especially the youngest one."

"Really?"

"Yeap. One day, when you are much, much older, you'll find out about the unwritten codes of this world. Not all of them make sense, some will but most won't, you just have to learn to roll with them and do your job." She started to pick up the dishes left behind by her boys and put them in the sink.

"Am I going to have any other brothers? I'd like to be an older brother."

"No, CeeJay. I'm not able to give you any other brothers." Damn, why did he have to ask that question now, when Gareth wasn't home to explain the Facts of Life to the child?

"Okay."

Cat gestured for Colby to get up from the table. "You might want to get upstairs before that pill takes effect. You will probably get very sleepy, very quickly and I can't carry you up to your room anymore, CeeJay."

"Yes, ma'am." Colby got up and started for the door but he turned around, came back and hugged his mother. "I love you, Mom." He then, literally, scooted out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"I love you too, Colby James."

END


End file.
